The Blessed People

The Blessed People

Today, let's meditate on the gospel according to Matthew, chapter 5. The sermon that Jesus delivers is affectionately called the sermon on the mount. In my opinion, the sermon on the mount is more like a devotional on the mount. But traditionally, we call it the Sermon on the Mount.

This sermon that Jesus taught us is to challenge us and to encourage us. The Sermon on the mount took place on the northern coast of the Sea of Galilee. There is a church over there, and its name is called the Church of ‘The Beatitudes. Beatitudes mean blessings, and there are eight different beatitudes that Jesus teaches here in these verses. His Sermon on the Mount is his longest recorded sermon, 107 verses. The first verse of this sermon was given to his disciples, and it begins here with eight beatitudes, which also means blessings.

The goal of Jesus' sermon was to both explain and challenge us. About how to live as a follower of Jesus Christ who is motivated by the heart rather than by the law. We have to remember that in Jesus' day, the religious leaders prided themselves on obeying the letter of the law. That only produces self-righteousness. When Jesus comes along with a different perspective, if you know me and have a relationship with me, you will be more motivated to obey me because of the love relationship. So it becomes a heart obedience rather than a legalistic obedience. Jesus teaches here that since we have a relationship with him, we're going to obey God's law because there's a heart relationship. Out of love, it's not legalistic. Jesus says that chapters five to seven are somewhat revolutionary. We have a response to that. We can either choose to obey, listen to have a heart relationship, or want to honor God or please God that way, or we can decide. We have a love-heart relationship with him, so we want to please him.

"The sermon on the mount is probably the best known part of the teaching of Jesus, though arguably it is the least understood and certainly it is the least obeyed." —John Stott (an Anglican theologian who died in 2011).

Jesus has given us eight statements in this passage. These eight statements that Jesus makes here and these beatitudes have been somewhat compared to the ten commandments. There are eight beatitudes here, and there are ten commandments in the old testament. and compared in this sense, whereas the ten commandments were a list of what you should not do. The eight beatitudes are a list of what you should do. Jesus approaches things at the beginning of the sermon by saying, "Here are eight character traits that my followers need to understand and follow." First of all, I want to lay out three general thoughts about the beatitudes.

1. These are eight character traits that identify true followers of Jesus Christ.

They are not multiple choices. You can't read the beatitudes like that. This is a package deal. It starts out with "blessed are the poor in spirit." Why do you need Jesus to begin with? That's the first one he's going to end with: blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake. You're going to start out by needing to come to me, approaching me with an understanding of how poor you are in your spirit. That's where it begins, but at the end, at point number eight, he's going to talk about people who are persecuted for their faith, and so it needs to be seen as a package and it needs to be seen with intensity. We don't get to pick and choose. It's not multiple choice.

2) It's important to realize that these traits open the door to inner happiness:

The word beatitude translates literally as "blessed." So Jesus's going to begin with Each verse is blessed. This is the only time that Jesus repeats a word eight consecutive times in any of his teachings recorded in the Bible. And he's going to talk here about how blessed he is, and how each character trait opens the door to inner happiness. That word "blessed" literally means "oh how happy" in Greek. So he's basically saying, "Oh how happy you are, men and women who follow me in this way." How happy you are. That's the idea behind these beatitudes.

3) The third general observation before we look at these eight is that attached to each character trait is a corresponding promise. We read through it and he talks about what the character trait is and then he attaches a promise, a blessing of some kind. He holds out a particular benefit for each particular quality that has an eternal value, and so he's not just saying you're blessed if you do this. He's saying you're blessed if you do this, and here's the promise for you because of your faithfulness in these ways. Jesus begins with some wonderful blessings. Here are some wonderful things. Let us meditate one by one.